News

Livewire kiosks power T-Mobile promotion

January 16, 2007

YORK, Pa. — Livewire International announced the completion of a promotional system for T-Mobile USA Inc.

T-Mobile wanted to introduce its new Fave 5 service plans via "street-level" cross-promotions in addition to its traditional advertising methods. The idea was to engage the targeted consumers directly by giving them an opportunity to win prizes from its co-marketing partners, Sony, Samsung and the National Basketball Association. The result was an innovative campaign utilizing basketball-focused events staged at numerous malls and NBA arenas throughout the country.

Livewire was chosen to create a custom solution that allowed consumers to enter into a basketball shooting competition where the winner would have a chance of winning one of several giveaways (including a PlayStation 3, NBA '07 video game, Samsung phone, and NBA jerseys). The solution consisted of a wireless network of four IBM Anyplace kiosks (housed within large basketball-like enclosures) integrated with a central control computer and four remote display controllers.

Data entered by consumers into the kiosks was stored in a database on the central control computer. Web service technology provided distributed control of the display computers to drive digital signage mounted above shoot-to-win basketball games, as well as interaction with a 42-inch plasma display enclosed within a giant 10-foot high Samsung cell phone used to announce the game winner and initiate a "spin-to-win" giveaway.

Livewire, utilizing Microsoft's .NET Framework, created software that enabled participants to enter their contact information into the kiosk and choose icons representing themselves and their Fave 5. These icons were then displayed on the screens above four basketball games while players competed to make the most baskets during a 30-second countdown. At the completion of the game, an NBA-like ticket would be printed for each player showing their Fave 5 icons with additional information and offerings from T-Mobile. The winner's icons were then displayed on the cell phone and the player would push a button causing their icons to spin until their randomly selected prize was displayed.

"We were pleased to be involved in such an innovative project," said Dave McCracken, president of Livewire. "There are now three complete setups traveling around the country, sometimes being disassembled and reassembled in another location on the same night, and the feedback has been extremely positive; both on the promotion itself and the underlying technology."